The Power of Seduction

Last March, the citizens of Madrid and of Spain were able to witness (live or trough TV) an extraordinary and rare event. Adolfo Suarez, the Prime Minister who led the transition from a military dictatorship to a parliamentary democracy passed away after several years of illness. Although his death was expected, the reaction of the Spanish people and politicians was not. With his passing, Suarez became within hours a national hero. TV channels and newspapers dedicated special programs and hundreds of pages to explain the role that Suarez had played in Spanish history. The common people started to remember how much Spain owed to its former PM. And so, when the House of Parliament opened its gates to receive Suarez´s body, a huge crowd was there to bid him farewell. Thousands of Spaniards marched during two days to visit the coffin and pay their respects. A queue of more than five kilometers formed around Parliament, and many citizens even waited overnight to be able to get in.

However, the reaction was almost more extraordinary among the Spanish politicians. For the first time in years, the whole parliamentary arc reached a political consensus: praising and giving thanks to Adolfo Suarez. Not a single prominent politician avoided a public statement expressing admiration, respect and gratitude. This consensus was visible when politicians of all parties and colors crowded together behind the coffin and marched silently through the streets of Madrid. People followed the funeral cortege with curiosity and emotion. Many citizens shouted to the politicians: Aprended de él (learn from him).

The fact is: there are no longer political leaders in Spain of the magnitude of Adolfo Suarez. He was a true statesman, he firmly worked for the well-being of his people, he was able to forge a historical political agreement (the Spanish Constitution) and he had an explosive personal charisma that no politician has had since then.

Adolfo Suarez González was born in Cebreros, a small village in the Castilian province of Avila, in 1932. Son of a solicitor, he grew up in a middle class family, who had Republican connections. Suarez soon became involved in several catholic youth associations during his student years. He had to work hard to succeed in life. He earned his money as a luggage carrier to be able to pay his studies. He completed the degree of Law in the University of Salamanca, and later became a Doctor. Suarez became a member of the Falange Española, the only political party which was legal in Spain during the dictatorship of Franco. Of a fascist origin, this party was the ideological pillar of the Francoist regime. Suarez held several positions in the party’s structure, until he became its secretary general in 1975.

The death of General Franco, in November 1975, changed the political reality of the country. Franco had appointed the young prince Juan Carlos of Borbon as his successor. The new king acceded to the throne as the only head of state in Western Europe that had absolute power.

Juan Carlos was determined to end the military dictatorship and to give birth to a true democracy. But he knew the process was extremely complicated. The supporters and members of the regime, as well as the armed forces were not going to allow the king to change the system. Even the Prime Minister Arias Navarro firmly opposed any democratic reform. So in July 1976, Juan Carlos dismissed Arias Navarro and appointed Adolfo Suarez as new PM. 43-year-old Suarez was totally unknown to the Spanish population. The clandestine leftist opposition saw him as a member of the Falange Española, a supporter of the old regime. And the right wing political leaders distrusted him for his youth and inexperience. But Suarez, as well as the king, was determined to end the dictatorship. He formed a young and charismatic cabinet that initiated a series of democratic reforms. The process began in 1976 and lasted two years, until the enactment of a new democratic constitution. But the path was far from being easy. Suarez had to face terrorist attacks from several antifascist and extreme right groups. Strikes, violent demonstrations in the streets, political murders, and the imminent threat of a military coup d’état were the day-to-day situations Suarez’s government had to deal with. But he was brave, and he managed to convince a great part of the old francoist political structure that the transition to democracy was the only way out. He also legalized political parties that were before forbidden and persecuted. He, who was an old falangista who had become a democrat, also persuaded the left wing parties (socialists, communists, as well as Basque and Catalan nationalists) of taking part in the process. And so, his efforts resulted in a political consensus never seen in Spanish history. Political leaders that had fought on opposing sides in the Spanish Civil War were now negotiating the elaboration of a democratic Constitution.

The new Magna Carta was officially signed by the king on December 6, 1978. It made Spain one of the youngest and most promising democracies in Europe. This was perhaps Suarez’s greatest contribution: his ability of building agreements and consensus among people who not so long ago hated each other to death. And to achieve that, he used his extraordinary personal charm as a political tool. Suarez was described by those who knew him as a seducer. He possessed an alluring persuasiveness that few people (men or women) could resist. He was an attractive man who produced fascination among those around him. He knew it, and he did not hesitate in using it.

Suarez’s political role ended with the Transition. In 1981, he resigned as PM because of his disagreements with the king, and the lack of support of his own party. He tried several times to return to front line politics, but was unsuccessful. So the king granted him the title of Duke of Suarez and he quietly retired from public life to work as an attorney. Alzheimer’s eventually took over his mind, and ended his life last March. Death brought him the recognition he did not receive when he was alive. The epitaph engraved in his tomb, in the cloister of Avila’s cathedral describes perfectly his last message to Spaniards in these times of turmoil: La concordia fue posible. Concord was possible.